Considerations
by 54Viruses
Summary: Expansions on the BTTS series.
1. Chapter 1

I agree with many that the new series isn't up to par with the 2003 series, but that was probably hoping for too much after the failure that was FF. In their defense on some points you must remember that it is a _kid's_ show, if you delve to deeply into how a character should react to certain plots younger kids lose interest and change the channel to some junk from Japan. I usually do not write Kit specifically into the series but I figured "what the heck, everyone else is doing it." So I wrote a little something for the new season.

Finally: I do not own the TMNT.

On with the story!

* * *

"Mikey would you sit _still!_"

"But it _hu-u-urts!_" Michelangelo whined pitifully.

It was a typical enough scene, Mikey had wiped out on his bike again and had a series of scrapes he was set and determined _not_ to get cleaned by sheer force of whine power.

Unfortunately his nurse was not Donnie as it should have been. No, Donnie was in the lab working at his computers, as he had been for the past _ninety_ hours straight. Ever since they had returned from the future Donnie had come as close as he could to locking himself in a lab that was in the middle of the lair with no wall separating it from the rest of the lair, leaving Kit to take care of the minor cuts and owies. She was sure the minute something serious occurred Donnie'd be in there patching and fretting, but for now he worked on the computers.

_Just like he's been doing for the last several days._ Kit tried not to glance at any clocks as she thought this; they made her uncomfortably aware of just how long it had been since Donnie had last slept.

"_OW-W!_" This was more of a yelp than a whine and quickly drew Kit's attention back to Mikey, who had just had a gauze pad applied non-too gently to the raw skin of his arm.

"Whoops. Sorry Mike." Kit quickly grabbed a cream to sooth the wound.

"Hey, it's no biggy! Just try not to be so stunned by my dazzling aura of awesomeness!" Mikey grinned. Kit cringed, his jokes were worse than usual. His happy demeanor was more forced, causing him to go over the top more often and still more often to fail miserable with his usually witty remarks.

That's how it had been since the reality of their situation sunk in and everyone realized that like some sick twisted joke Master Splinter had been replaced by Mr. Clean-sarcastic-and-annoying-bot. Donnie had been obsessed, Mikey had been acting. Raph was actually doing an ironically better job at holding his temper. Possibly he realized that with Mikey already breaking stuff and Serling getting on everyone's nerves Raph's blowing up might just push the small mutant family someplace nobody wanted to go.

Kit dabbed more gently at one of the scrapes on Mikey's leg and glanced up at the robot currently polishing the trashcan in the kitchen. For a moment Kit wondered if there was a way to shut him down for the next ninety some-odd years. Did Cody really need him that badly? Leo seemed to think so.

Leo hadn't been acting too differently despite his new (hopefully temporary) position as head of the clan. He'd been worrying over the possibility of Master Splinter being 'not there' for years. If anything he seemed the most ready to accept the possibility that their teacher, their father, might not be coming back but also knew that it was not yet time for grieving. For now he just focused on making sure everyone else was alright.

Which brought the matter back to Donnie. Kit could see the concern in Leo's eyes every time he looked at Donnie. His own experiences kept him from acting for fear of making the matter worse. It was on the edge of everyone's mind that something had to be done, that Donnie had to be stopped before he killed himself. Unfortunately this thought was held at bay with the uncomfortable knowledge that Donnie was the only one with the knowledge, skills, intellect and understanding to seize this barest of threads that might save Master Splinter. It was a realm of knowledge that only April could begin to enter, and even then it was a little beyond her. Privately Kit hoped they would be able to find where LeatherHead had disapeared off to before too long.

And so the lair lapsed into an uncomfortable static feeling that was hardly lifted when April and Casey had become engaged. Now it was back.

"There, all done." Kit announced. "No boarding until the shiny goes away."

Mikey grinned playfully, there was the slightest of twitches as the smile stretched out fully, "What, no sucker? Cheap deal!"

"Think again!" With a flourish Kit pulled out a sucker she had found somewhere and stashed for just such a purpose. "A dum-dum for our favorite…nah –to easy."

Mikey smiled again, although it was slightly less forced this time, as he accepted the candy and hopped off the chair he'd been sitting on. Kit watched as he started to skip, flinched when something was stretched that didn't want to stretch and settled for walking the rest of the way.

After cleaning up the first-aid supplies Kit took note of anything that needed to be replenished or replaced. As she looked her eyes fell on a small brown bottle. It was filled with a ketamine-xylozine mixture that Donnie'd actually mixed up from a confiscated bag acquired during a drug bust. She lifted the bottle and glanced out into the lab where Donnie was working. He looked so bad that Kit unconsciously glanced at his leg for the bandage that had been there for so long. No, this wasn't the mutation; this was Donnie obsessing over his work.

And probably wallowing in guilt. Donnie was so absorbed with his work and exhausted from lack of sleep…and proper food, that he'd never see it coming.

With a shake of her head Kit replaced the drug, reminding herself that Donnie was the _only_ one who could find Master Splinter.

_He'd probably feel worse about falling ill and losing several days of work than a few hours drugged sleep,_ a still small voice whispered._ What would it be to possibly gain a father, while certainly losing a brother?_

Within moments Kit was drawing the drug cocktail into a syringe.

* * *

Please leave a review.


	2. What If We Can't

I was still skeptical about whether or not to post another chapter of this until 9:30 AM Saturday. I turned on the television. Changed to channel twelve and what do my wondering eyes behold? Viral going through her sob story again. ALAS! A repeat…Already! (fume)

So this was posted in protest of the show already having reruns.

I do not own the TMNT or the Madeline books and characters.

* * *

It was one of those nights where Leonardo felt like Madam from that book he'd once fished out of the sewer water. He woke up for no obvious reason except a distinct feeling that could be perfectly described by the quote "Something is not right."

Leo slipped out of his room and glanced around the lair. For once the lights were dimmed and the computers were being watched by Kit instead of Donnie. She was calmly reading her bible in the light from the monitors, occasionally glancing up as the computer ran through the intricate programs Donnie had set it to before his impromptu nap. Kit insisted that if an emergency arose she could wake Donnie up from his drugged sleep and since Kit knew the most about computers after Donnie (LONG after Donnie) it kind of made sense to put her on "bit watch".

Clearly she was not the cause for Leo's distress.

He moved on to the usual suspects; starting with Donnie's room. While one certainly couldn't call the room neat it was cleaner than usual due to its lack of use over the last couple of weeks and the layer of dust from their year long absence had yet to be cleared. On the bed Donnie lay inert, only his breathing indicating he was still alive. Although Leo knew that a drugged sleep wasn't as restful as normal sleep he hoped that Donnie would stay in bed for at least a couple hours after the drugs wore off. This hope wasn't likely but hope shouldn't be killed. For the moment at least, Don was sleeping.

Leo fully expected to find Mikey caught in the midst of a nightmare, running from a monster taken either from real life or his overly active imagination. Instead the turtle was sitting up in bed quietly writing by the glow of his night-light. With a smile Leo ordered gently, "Go to sleep Mikey." The orange banded turtle jumped in surprise, startling the fully grown ginger cat at his side.

At first the turtles hadn't been convinced that they'd been gone a whole year, despite what the papers' dates were. But seeing Klunk had grown from a mischievous kitten to a conniving cat had forced them to believe.

Mikey quickly moved the notebook so that Leo, still standing in the doorway across the room, couldn't read it. "Right! Night!" He agreed hastily.

"Goodnight Mikey." Leo nodded before turning.

"Leo?" He turned back to Mikey. "Bro, could you check on Raph? He's been acting kind of strange lately, and I think Raph's been having nightmares." Leo nodded and moved to the last of his brother's rooms.

Even before he got to the door Leo felt certain that Raph was the reason he had been so inclined to wake up. He pushed the door open and was greeted by the deep throated grunts and growls Raph tended to make when caught in a particularly bad dream. Planning to tell the hot-head that Mikey complained of snoring Leo stepped over to Raph's hammock and placed a hand on his shoulder. "Raph?"

Raph's dark hand snapped tightly over Leo's wrist as he suddenly jerked awake, somehow remaining seated on his hammock at the same time. He stared at Leo with confusion for a moment, blinking slowly before asking. "Leo?"

"Yeah, it's me." Leo assured him.

Raph nodded and looked around the room for a moment before focusing on Leo again. "Is Mike okay?"

"Yeah, I just saw him in his room." Again Raph nodded and glanced at the door. "Are _you_ okay?" Leo asked slowly.

"M' fine." Raphael's words were made less believable by the death grip he maintained on Leo's wrist. "Bad dream." He added as an afterthought. Although it was barely an acknowledgement of the truth Leo recognized and opening and waited for Raphael to continue.

After several minutes Raph again looked at Leo, no longer disoriented. He released his grip on Leo's wrist, causing the attached hand to pulse slightly as blood flow was returned. Raph stood from his hammock, easily disentangling himself from the blankets without upending the hammock. He glanced at the door again before asking quietly, "Leo…what do you think about…this whole 'cybernaut' thing?"

Leo frowned slightly. "What do you mean?"

Raph glared at the wall as he spoke. "This whole…computers and technology thing. I mean, when we're in there, we're nothin' but energy. Nothin' more than that little bit that shocks ya sometimes."

This time Leo's frown was a little deeper, he hadn't really thought of it like that…

"I mean, it's not like when one of us gets hit out here. It's different somehow." Raph struggled with a concept he couldn't explain.

"You're right, I don't pretend to understand it but you're right." Leo agreed.

"I don't get it, you don't get it so…how does Donnie get it? I –I don't know next ta' nothin' about computers and maybe it's normal for computer geeks to know what it's like in the internet but…" Again Raph struggled both with his words and with his hesitancy to insult their only hope of rescuing Master Splinter.

"Raph," Leo asked, "Is this about something that happened when we went into the internet?"

"No it's…well, yeah." Raph still wasn't making eye contact, but one of his hands was doing something weird. He'd hold it up like it was pressing against something, then suddenly pull the hand through the space it had previously been pressing against. Due to his rather physical nature and his current state of distraction Raph was probably completely unaware of what he was doing.

After watching it for a moment a niggling of an idea slowly crawled into Leonardo's mind. It kind of looked like when he and Raph had been pulling on Mikey and the Cyber Shredder started to -was the word digitize? That sounded about right- digitize Mikey's cyber form. One minute it had been the two of them fighting to keep a hold on Mikey, the next it had been just Leo and from the look on Raph's face Leo guessed that Mikey's arm had phased –was that the right word? Phased?- right through Raph's arms.

Leo sighed as Raph's hand again passed through the ghost of Mikey's arm. Raph suddenly became aware of what he was doing in quickly crossed his arms, still avoiding eye contact. "Raph," Leo began, Raphael tensed up, ready for a lecture on sleep or something. "We'll protect them, okay?"

Finally Raph made eye contact with his brother. "But what if we can't?"


	3. What if We had Faith?

Sorry I took so long to update but Whoot! Another new episode! With a happy-ish ending! Huzzah!

Donnie's no longer Mr. Cranky Butt! Yay! glomps geeky turtle.

(Donnie;) Serling! Security mode! Quick! HELP!

I do not own the TMNT

* * *

What if We had faith?

* * *

"What kind of fool-hardy, thoughtless, stupid, idiotic genius is that turtle supposed to be?" Kit grumbled to herself. She was, of course referring to the way Donatello had run off into cyberspace with no intention of being followed. Fortunately she'd managed to catch up with him before he'd zipped off in that digital transport thing of his. Even then he'd seemed dead set on ignoring her if at all possible, and the way he kept mumbling to himself proved he wasn't entirely aware of her presence anyway.

At least he'd learned his lesson. Donnie had apologized to his brothers as well as to Kit. Now all he had to do was go to bed under his own power and Kit wouldn't have to drug him again.

These were the thoughts running through Kit's mind as she walked past Mikey's room. All these thoughts were likewise shoved aside when she heard a sniff from inside the room.

She stopped and peaked into the bedroom. Michelangelo was sitting on his bed looking at a notebook and from the look of the dark spots on his mask he'd been crying as well. "Mikey?"

The turtle jumped slightly and shut the notebook. "Kit! Hi! How are you?" He asked quickly, his smile twitching slightly.

Kit shrugged slightly as she leaned against the doorframe. "I'm fine. How are you?"

"Great! I mean, Serling found the bathroom! No more toilet duty!" Mikey explained cheerfully.

"Yeah, that's definitely a good thing." Kit agreed. "That all that's going on with you?" She casually brushed her fingers beneath her eyes. Mikey mimicked the motion and felt the moisture that his mask had collected.

"Tears of joy?" He suggested, his smile cracking even as he said it. Kit gently shook her head and stepped into the room. She made her way through the mess of the floor and soon climbed up onto Mikey's bed, sitting cross legged in front of him.

"You miss him, don't you?" She asked bluntly.

Mikey dropped both his gaze and his pretense. "Yeah. Like, a lot." He opened the notebook so that Kit could see an old sketch of Master Splinter on the page. On the faded white paper the old rat stood in a worn robe with his trusty walking stick clenched in one thin hand. The lines were smudged in some places and the paper was warped in a couple spots where it had gotten wet.

It was kind of obvious _how_ the paper had gotten wet.

"You, um, you want to talk about it?" Kit asked hesitantly, hopefully with tact.

Mikey ran a thumb over the illustration, further smearing the lines. "He's supposed to be here." He said.

Kit frowned and tilted her head slightly. Mikey glanced down at his notebook, trying to put the feeling into words. "Splinter's always been there…I mean not always _here_ there but... I mean, even in that weird superhero world thing Master Splinter was there…kinda… And I'm not making any sense am I?"

"Actually, you're making perfect sense." Kit assured him. She smiled sadly, "It's like when… when I found out about my mom. I hadn't seen her in two years, but suddenly the idea of her not being there… It tore something out of me."

This time Mikey managed a small, smile, "Yeah, your patience." Kit leaned forward and cuffed him lightly over the head. Although the hit was barely more than a tap Mikey rubbed at it as he turned back to the sketch in his notebook. "What if he's not coming back?" Mikey asked in a small voice, "What if Donnie finds all his cyber bits and we still can't get him back? Or Donnie brings him back and he's…he's still not…" Mikey's words faltered, not wanting to finish.

Kit crawled across the bed and sat next to Mike, putting an arm around his shell and giving him a small one-armed hug. "We just have to have faith. Faith in Donnie's tech and know how, faith in Master Splinter, and faith in…" She paused, not wanting to get preachy, "You know." Kit finished with a smile.

Mikey nodded. He stared at the sketch for a moment before closing the notebook and placing it aside. "Right." He said. Then, before Kit could stop him or move he seized Kit and gave her a bone crushing turtle hug. "Thanks."

When the warm-fuzzy session finally broke up Mikey grabbed the notebook and tossed it across the room. It hit the wall and landed on a pile of black cloth that had been discarded after the day's excursions.

"So…um, since when did you guys wear clothes?" Kit asked, looking curiously at the pile of clothing.

Mikey threw his hands in the air, "Oh sure, you're allowed to wear clothes every single day but when we put on Donnie's super cool stealth suits you give us flack?" He shot back dramatically.

Kit lifted a brow and crossed her arms. "A- you're the one always going on about the 'naked ninja' and how 'dark green is better than black'. B- every time you guys are required to wear clothes _you_ volunteer to wear a dress. Don't tell me that this has absolutely nothing to do with how uncomfortable you find pants and C-…they're kind of…well…they're cat suits. Cat suits are a girl thing."

"You're a cat." Mikey pointed out.

"I'm also a girl." Kit shot back.

"The jury's still out on that." The orange banded turtle grinned, his drying mask crinkling in amusement as he dodged Kit's fist. "Besides; I look better in that thing than any of those Hollywood babes!"

"In your dreams, you looked like a trapeze artist whose regular costume was at the cleaners." Kit scratched thoughtfully at one of her ears. "Leo on the other hand looked like and actual ninja."

Mikey rolled his eyes and scoffed, "Oh like sleeves make all the difference."

Kit grinned and tugged lightly on the sleeves of her jacket, "Absa-tively." She affirmed. With a mischievous glance toward the door she added, "Especially in Raph's case, extra long sleeves that go all the way around to the back…" Mikey sniggered helplessly, trying to keep the volume down in case Raphael over heard.

* * *

Sorry, got carried away with the ninja stealth suit bit there… : )


	4. Stress

Sorry I haven't updated this in a while, I had a plot bunny running around without its fur so I thought it was a rat and tried to get rid of it. Been very busy, this one kind of covers something that's been bugging me for a while.

I do not own the TMNT; Takes place after the BTTS episode in Mikey's RP game.

* * *

Stress

* * *

"Raph! I need something sharp and I need it now!"

Raphael looked up to find Kit standing in his doorway wearing a short, forest green tunic complete with belt, boots and gloves. "Have I mentioned that ya really don't have the figure to pull that look off?"

Kit held up a warning finger. "Shut it Kermit or I'll tell everyone _why_ you spent most of the game as a frog." Raph 'shut it' and pulled out a shurike, tossing it to Kit who easily caught it and attacked the tunic.

Donatello's predictions about the game scrambling their information had proven –for the most part- false. Everyone had returned in their designated species wearing just as few clothes as they'd gone into the cyber portal with. Raph had been pleased to be his usual shell-backed self; aside from a slight speech problem (ribbiting) that had quickly worn off.

Unfortunately the game had lost the information for Kit's gi and replaced it with the yeoman's tunic; a costume designed for female characters. Naturally, since it was a _video game_ this meant little or no skirt and a tight top, a look Kit really wasn't built for. To annoy the mutant cat further the costume had no seams and no way to get out of it so failing all else she was resorting to her favorite method; violence.

Although even to Raph's eyes it looked like she was being a little too violent; at the rate Kit was hacking at that costume she'd stab herself soon. "Shouldn't ya go easy on the choppin' action there?" He asked.

In response Kit stopped chopping and sawed at the material just under her arm. Raph finally hopped off his hammock and grabbed Kit's wrist, physically pulling the hand with the blade in it away from her body, several black hairs drifted from where she'd been cutting. "What the shell Kit!?" He demanded. It took him a minute to realize that her hand was shaking; in fact, she was shaking from head to toe.

"Whoa, whoa, what's wrong?" He took the shurike from her and grabbed her shoulders to force her attention to him.

"Nothing." Kit still looked down at that ridiculous costume; the knife had barely nicked the material.

"Yeah, you always act like a nut when things are peachy." Raph scoffed, "Now, ya can't be that angry about the fairy suit and ya don't shake when y'are angry."

In response to his concerned roughness Kit just glared at him. The effect was ruined when moisture started pooling behind her eyelids, quickly Kit pulled away, growling slightly. "It's nothing, okay? Just nerves or whatever."

Raph frowned and grabbed her arm before she could leave. "Listen Kit, I'm the last person to go all 'feelings' and 'Mr. Rogers' crap, but I know that we don't need anyone blowin' their top right now so talk ta me."

For a moment Kit just stared at the green hand gripping her arm, trying to both glare daggers at it and ignore the fact that her shaking hadn't quite calmed down. It took a moment but she slowly started to relax. Finally she took a breath and slowly let it out.

"I don't know. I'm just fed up." She finally answered.

"Fed up with what?"

A pause. "It's…I…" Kit snorted lightly and smirked, "Do I have to pick?"

Raph shrugged, "Start somewhere and keep rantin', I got time." He added a smirk of his own before releasing Kit's hand, "How 'bout that pixie suit? What d'ya think ah that?"

Kit glanced down at the tunic, it was barely more covering than Tinkerbelle's leaf dress. "The slut suit? Yeah, Mikey's going to pay for this in spades. I mean; because of this piece of work the computer ate my gi! My last good gi! I never trusted computers in the first place and here we are dependent on the things…"

As Kit began to blow off all the steam she could verbally- and that was quite a bit- putting word to her worries, anger and even her fears Raph stepped back and did the best thing he could; shut up and listen. When Kit was done they'd probably go for a run and catch some thugs, get rid of as much left over energy as possible before the sun arose.

Until things got sane again it was the least he could do.

* * *

Here's my rant; stop dressing female video game characters as sluts! Nobody's built like that in reality and the clothing is absurd!

Thank you for reading. :)

Er...I don't own Tink or Mr. Rogers either so instead of calling a lawyer please click on these nice new green buttons!


	5. My Hero

I do not own the TMNT

* * *

My Hero

* * *

"Hey Raph? We're heading to that game Don found, did you still want to come?"

Kit frowned when nobody answered. "Raph?" She pushed the door of Raph's bedroom open a little. The hothead lay on his hammock staring at the ceiling with a faraway look characteristic of Mikey or Don, sometimes even Leo but never Raph. "Raph? Anything wrong?"

Raphael finally looked up. "Oh, hey Kit… nothin's wrong." He said this somewhat distractedly.

Instead of believing him Kit asked, "Does it have something to do with that mantle thing?"

"No." Raph snorted, bringing up his usual attitude, but he seemed to think better of it after a moment and corrected himself. "Well… maybe."

Kit nodded and stepped a little further into the room. "Yeah, that was pretty weird. Still wondering what the heck was up with that whole chin thing."

"Would you drop it already?" Raph glared at Kit, the look lightened slightly by amusement. Although she seemed to take everything else about the previous day's activities in stride, the chins had kind of tripped her up.

Holding up her hands in mock surrender Kit grinned. "Fine, consider it dropped." She agreed. "Then was it the superpowers? I guess being able to smack Mikey upside the head from fifty feet away must have been pretty cool."

Raph chuckled a little, "Yeah it was." He agreed. His slight smile however, disappeared with the chuckle. "Ya know somethin' though?" The turtle stared off into the distance of his small room for a moment. "It wasn't really the superpowers. I mean; those were cool too, but that wasn't the best part."

For a moment Raph didn't finish his line of thought. "What was?" Kit prompted.

Behind the red of his mask Raph blinked and looked over at her. "It was the people. The way they smiled an' cheered. Definitely a change from the ol' scream-an'-run we usually get. Then there was the way the J-Force acted around me. Weird."

"Huh." Raph grunted slightly. "Guess that was why I didn't want to give the stupid thing up."

After his short speech Raph dropped into silence for several minutes before grunting. "I guess I could have kept at it, but I figured bein' Mikey's bro was probably smarter than bein' a superhero some more. Pretty stupid huh? Shell, by the end of th' day the way those capes talk all the time was startin' to sound almost normal." He tried to laugh some at his own lameness but the sound was hollow and dry.

Kit waited for Raph to finish speaking before trying to find something to say. She took her time gathering her thoughts before starting quietly. "When we were in the future we all got to walk around in broad daylight and the only time anyone gave us a second look was when Mikey was pulling something. Today you got to fly, and that put you in the limelight." By now Raph was giving her a little bit of a strange look and Kit shrugged. "Yeah, I know; I sound like the capes; this is what happens when you make me play sidekick all day. Anyway, you've seen a glimpse of normal and a taste of celebrity. But I've known what it is to have a bad family, and what it is to have no family. Trust me Raph, you did the right thing and the best thing. Not only by Mikey, but by yourself."

Raphael stared at the floor for a moment before nodding. "Yeah, I guess yer right. I just keep wondering 'what if', ya get me?"

"I get you." Kit agreed. She then shrugged and grinned. "Who knows though, maybe you'll get another chance at it. Maybe something in leather."

Raph snorted. "Only if I get ta ride my bike and only if Mikey never finds out."

"Either way Raph." Kit said in all seriousness. "I hope you know that you'll always be Mikey's hero."

"He wants me for a side-kick, how heroic is that?" Raph snorted.

Kit chuckled but shrugged. "Whatever, just remember that you're always a hero to us." She waved and left the room, calling, "Better hurry if you still want to see the game!"

Raph grunted and grabbed his sais before heading to the door. Just before he reached it Raph paused. "Wait a minute… 'us' who?"


	6. Wedding Bells' Echo

I do not own the TMNT

Last chapter. I wanted to post this months ago but it slipped past me.

* * *

Wedding Bells' echo

* * *

_Well, April and Casey are married now, and what a wedding it was._

_But I won't bother going into detail, between Serling, the Utroms and the Justice Force I think there were more than enough video copies made._

_The reception was fun, Mikey outdid himself on the reception dinner and we even managed to convince April and Casey to go on their honeymoon despite the destroyed barn._

_Mikey seems to have taken his self appointed roll as Maid of Honor very seriously; the reception was a hit almost solely because of his efforts. Raph tried to tease him about his playing hostess, but Mikey completely missed the jab and started babbling something about the table decorations… I think. Sometimes it worries me that my brother can stand there talking to me about something that really interests him and I barely understand a word he says._

_After April and Casey had left the reception continued for quite a while. Mrs. Jones –uh, Casey's mother that is- found the original plans for the barn and 'volon-told' several people that they would be helping her rebuild the thing… I think Silver Sentry is scared of her and I admit; I'm curious about how she hid that tire iron in her formal attire._

_Despite the wide variety of guests everyone seemed to get along well enough once Gen started avoiding the Ninja Tribunal. Since a large number of the guests are fighters, warriors or vigilantes several friendly sparring matches took place. The only real fight was between Raph and Leo. While I'm not overly happy with the whole black eyes and bruised fingers bit, it is kind of nice to see Raph acting more like himself now that Master Splinter is back._

_When everyone was finished with dinner we moved out to the field where Kit had set up a huge bonfire with the useless wood from the old barn as the woodpile. She refused to explain exactly why she'd decided to set it up and when Leo started asking where her dress had disappeared to she suddenly had to referee a sparring match._

_It's kind of strange, not only were we able to attend April and Casey's wedding, but we were part of it. No hiding, no bad disguises, and the only screaming happened when Shredder and the Foot showed up. It was a strange day admittedly, but it was also strangely normal. A beautiful wedding with friends and family gathered. Even after we met April I would have shrugged the idea of such a thing off. It almost makes me wonder…_

Donnie stopped writing. He quickly erased the last sentence before setting down the journal and looking out the window of the farmhouse. Off in the distance he could still see the glow of the bonfire with the smoke rising above it and into the night despite the fact that most of the guests had long since either headed home or broken up to find sleeping arrangements for the night. If he listened carefully enough he could hear the few remaining stragglers singing and laughing.

He could still picture the scene. The sunset had set April's hair into an almost angelic blaze and even made Case look pretty good as Professor Honeycutt pronounced them man and wife. Storybooks usually didn't end so brilliantly.

But this was not storybook. The wedding was over and life was going to continue.

April and Casey. Casey and April. Lately saying their names together had become habit. Donatello couldn't help but wonder if he'd know what that was like… to be so closely associated with someone who wasn't his brothers, someone who might… maybe…

"Donatello?" Master Splinter had entered the room as quietly as he ever did, living in cyberspace as data bits hadn't changed that. "It is early for you to be turning in." It was a subtle prod, anyone who didn't know Master Splinter well may have missed it.

Quietly Donnie turned away from the window, journal still in hand. "I know Father," He said, cherishing the word more than he had before the disaster in the time window. "I was just thinking…"

Splinter smiled, "Yes, this seems to be a favored pastime of yours." He said affectionately.

Donnie nodded, absently rubbing a thumb over the cover of his journal, considering. "Sensei," He began, "We've seen so much change these past few years. I mean, meeting April and Casey, the Shredders, space, time and dimensions…" Nervously Donnie drummed his fingers on the journal. "Do you think it's possible… that… maybe… there might be…" Slowly Donnie trailed off, suddenly embarrassed that he had brought it up at all.

"My son." Master Splinter said slowly, hoping he wasn't wrong in judging his son's thoughts. "You are correct. We have seen many, many changes in recent years. Of all that I have learned I can only be certain of two truths." Donnie looked up, waiting. "The first is that change is constant. The second; always expect the unexpected for nothing is impossible."


End file.
